Gaylord Entertainment announced its plans to develop a resort and convention hotel in Aurora, Colo. Located less than ten minutes from Denver International Airport, one of the most well-traveled and accessible airports in the world, and 25 minutes from downtown Denver, Aurora is ideally situated for both business and leisure travelers. The Aurora site will be located on 85 acres in LNR Property CPI Fund’s High Point Master Plan Development, and will feature breathtaking panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains. The company expects the resort to be open for business in mid-to-late 2015.

The chairman and CEO of Gaylord Entertainment Co. has sent a letter refuting a report by Visit Denver about the economic impacts of the company’s proposed hotel complex in Aurora.

Chief Executive Colin Reed said in a three-page memo to Colorado economic development chief Ken Lund that the report released earlier this week on the impact of a proposed 1,500-room hotel and conference center on the Denver metro region is based on opinions rather than facts.

The report, by hotel consultant HREC, makes several “leaps of faith” that Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord and its consultants believe to be flawed, Reed said in the letter dated Oct. 13.

“If you believe their report, it concludes that 66 percent of the Gaylord project’s business will be new to Colorado, which translates into hundreds of thousands of new visitors creating thousands of construction jobs and several thousand permanent jobs that don’t exist today,” Reed wrote. “These new visitors will rent cars, taxis, dine out and visit the community. Surely that’s good for the region and the state.”

The report funded by Visit Denver, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, was compiled over two months by Greenwood Village-based Hospitality Real Estate Counselors. It was presented to a Denver City Council committee Tuesday.

The proposed Gaylord hotel in Aurora would take $186.3 million in visitor spending from the rest of the metro Denver area, the report found. It said the proposed hotel and convention center near Denver International Airport would cause “significant impacts” to downtown Denver hotel businesses, overall visitor spending and tax revenue.

The HREC report indicates that a Gaylord would generate one-third of its revenue from business that already is coming to metro Denver, but Reed disputes that figure, saying it’s closer to 5 percent of the company’s business.

“So according to the HREC report, the worst case is that Gaylord generates 66 percent new business,” Reed stated.

The region would capture more business with the addition of a Gaylord property because there currently is not a facility that can accommodate meetings of 500 to 2,000 people all under one roof, Gaylord says.

“The greater Denver region is a market we have been interested in for at least three years and we believe It’s really under-served in the sector we specialize in,” Reed concludes. “Through this time we have been courted by Broomfield, Commerce City and Aurora. Each community has been warm and a delight to work with and it’s our hope that the city of Denver and the region in general will uniformly realize that we are not a threat but another spoke in the search for greatness. We are happy to meet and clarify our position on the above.”

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